A new report from The Information claims that Google is deep in the process of planning a new type of app trial for the Play Store aimed at increasing paid app downloads.

The system would be based on new developer tools for creating "Micro Apps" that would contain a subset of features from the full app. Downloading and installing these trials could save time and resources on low-end phones, while still letting users try before they buy.

Details on the new trial system are limited—it's not even clear how much easier this would be than simply building a limited version of the regular app APK. Presumably the Micro Apps would be based on a template of some sort with an easy way to upgrade to the full version. Perhaps it could save developers from maintaining more than one app listing.

Google has been struggling to get users interested in buying apps and games through the Play Store. Apple's App Store for iOS devices has seen consistently higher revenue per user. According to The Information, Google's internal numbers show that only 10 percent of Play Store users have bought paid apps or games. The Play Store serves 50 percent more downloads than the App Store, but payouts to developers are half that of iOS. Google has also started reducing the cut of Google Play revenue it gives to device makers.

Despite the option for developers to make free versions of their paid apps, there are still a lot of devs who haven't bothered. The Micro App approach could be as simple as making it easy to split the paid app up to instantly generate a trial version. Perhaps similar to the way Amazon makes the first few chapters of an ebook free. It's not a revolutionary idea, but if it encourages purchases, that's what Google needs to do.

About the Author

Ryan Whitwam is a freelance tech/science writer and fan of all things electronic. This long-time skeptic and former research scientist is a lover of the em dash and a defender of the Oxford comma. He also writes for Geek.com and ExtremeTech.
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